James Dodson Service Center

Reviews

Reviews are sorted by relevance, with the most helpful and insightful feedback listed first for easy reference.

  Don Young
4 months ago
We found our new service garage! James Dodson set up an appointment for us (not just "bring it in and we'll get to it"), finished before expected with an accurate quote, and provided a detailed invoice (not only a register receipt). Very happy we tried him!

  Roy Jones
4 months ago
The best place in town in my opinion to do business whit the owner and his daughter did what they said they would do. And took the time to explain all details to me .about my car. Well done...

  Barbara Madge
3 months ago
Keep me updated daily with everything he did on my truck. Very professional. Would definitely recommend this shop.

  Tim Terrillion
5 months ago
If you ever need a place to have your vehicle serviced this is the place. They are great people and honor the quotes they give. They are awesome!!!Service: Auto maintenanceService: Auto maintenance

  Steven Boehm
a year ago
James is a really solid guy. He never try s to take advantage of anyone. From my experience he has always been very fair with labor costs, and does his best to find affordable parts/solutions. He has a stellar reputation, so he can be pretty booked up, but when the scheduling lines up there s no other mechanic in the area I want working on my vehicles.

  Melissa Garber
2 months ago
VERY DETAILED! WAS ABLE TO WATCH THE MECHANICS WORKING ON MY CAR. THE MECHANICS SHOWED ME IN PERSON WHAT WAS WRONG. NO OTHER PLACE I'VE BEEN TO HAS EVER DONE THAT. SO FAR,NO PROBLEM.WE LOVE JAMES DODSON GARAGE. THEY ARE VERY NICE PEOPLE AND FAMILY. THEY TALK TO YOU AND EXPLAIN THEIR WORK. WE LOVE IT. THANK YOU!

  Stephanie Adams
3 years ago
Took my car to James' shop after glowing recommendations from coworkers and other people. My brakes were in pretty bad shape and they fixed the rear brakes + rotors in a half a day, over half the price as what Ford Lincoln quoted me. Very nice people, I did not feel like I was being scammed/trapped into more being wrong with my car like I've had with other dealerships and repair shops in the past. They've gained a new customer!

  Mary Martin
3 years ago
Our family has taken a number of vehicles to this service center. James is always upfront and honest about the condition of each vehicle. They do not charge for things that are not necessary. We recommend James and all of the service techs and staff highly and will continue to take our vehicles there in the future

  Moos 1
4 years ago
We were towed in by AAA Towing - when we arrived at the service center, James was waiting for us. What I liked most was that he got into the truck immediately to see what's going on and gave us a few possibilities of what could be wrong. We did not have to wait for days to find out what's wrong and how much it would cost to repair. In fact he gave us a tip to get the truck started for the time being right away. We returned 2 days later for him to repair the issue permanently. Originally we thought parts need to be replaced on the starter, but he assessed it again and found a loose wire which he repaired withing the hour - Initially the repairs and parts would have been $300, but with his trained eye and knowledge we ended up with only the loose wire repaired for $142!!! THANK YOU for FAST, FRIENDLY service!! (that did not cost an arm and a leg). We are now customers for live!

  Amber M.
3 years ago
Brought my vehicle in to change the front brakes and oil. I live right down the road from the service center, so me and my little boy just dropped the car off and walked home. I called to find out if the car was ready, and the gentleman on the phone (I want to say this was the owner, maybe?) was very polite, very thorough with explaining everything. Apologetic because it took longer than he expected, and then told me he noticed us walking home earlier and asked if we needed to be picked up to get my car. I couldn't be more impressed with this place. You guys are awesome. :) Thank you!

  Robert Bliven
4 years ago
Do not have James Dodson work on your vehicle!! Dropped off our Toyota Tundra to have the timing belt replaced since it was due having 116,000 mi on it. We left it with James on Monday morning and he said it would take 6 hours to complete. James called us about 2 hours later and said, "I want you to know that I take full responsibility, it's my fault, but we had an issue." I didn't understand what he was saying, he went on to say, "I put the timing belt on wrong and I bent the valves in your engine, the damage is bad, I'm so sorry but it was a mistake." I was speechless, couldn't figure out if he was kidding or serious since timing belts are not hard to do, certainly never heard of a mechanic putting one on wrong and blowing up the customer's engine! He informed us a couple days later that he was turning the claim over to his insurance company to handle it. Well, here's where the games begin, he uses a low budget insurance called Erie insurance, and they do not care about honesty or taken care of customers. We use the ACR phone call recording app on our phones and we have several recorded calls where Erie insurance lied to us, laughed at us, hung up on us, each person we talked to contradicted the other person, and on and on. At first they told us they would give us market value to replace the vehicle since they were totaling it in the claim, then they said they use NADA book value, then in the end, they said they only give cash out value and not what it costs to replace vehicles. We also went 10 days without a vehicle because Cheryl at Erie insurance claimed that Erie insurance does not provide customers with rental cars during a claim, which another associate with Erie insurance told us that's not true. there is so much more than what I'm saying here but what a horrible insurance company, they are out of Erie Pennsylvania and if you check their corporate page reviews on Google, you will see that this is common practice for this company. In the end, our loss, if we sue the insurance company, the attorney gets a third of the settlement which could put us less than where we are now, worst experience ever. Also, we noticed with the last repair Dodson done for us that he seemed to be unaware of what to do and had to Google everything before he did anything to the vehicle? About a week before we took our truck to Dodson when we called to schedule for the timing belt replacement, James Dodson told us that two people were talking about suing him for messing up their vehicles and that he had a really bad week. I see now from our experience that it's likely that he was in the wrong and not those customers. Too bad, hard to find a good mechanic these days. We would never go back but I guess that goes without saying.

  Mallory Weidie
5 years ago
DO NOT USE THIS SHOP!!!! He is a liar and wont fix things he breaks! TAKE MY $3700 LESSON!!!Sometime around the beginning of the February 2019, my 2011 Ford F-250 Superduty began to leak a very small amount of oil. We took it to our local mechanic shop for a diagnosis. They found the problem to be the upper oil pan gasket failure which is common for these truck but this shop didn t handle jobs of that size. My husband then reached out to James Dodson Service Center LLC in his hometown Sparta, Tennessee for an estimate. James Dodson said that he would be happy to fix and quoted us the price of $1000.We dropped my truck off to James Dodson Service Center LLC Thursday February 7, 2019 and was told the job would take roughly a week, that we should be able to pick it up on Wednesday February 13th. James called my husband later that day to tell him our problem was not the Upper Oil Pan Gasket but that he knew with certainty that it was actually the Valve Cover Gasket that was leaking the oil. By Tuesday (2/12) we had still not heard from James and we had left multiple messages that went unanswered. Not knowing what was going on with my truck, Saturday (2/16) I went to James business Facebook and messaged him hoping to get an update. His cell phone number was listed on his Facebook page so I text messaged him as well. Finally, I got a response text followed immediately by a phone call. He informed me that my truck wasn t finished and that he had broken a major bolt off in the cylinder head while he was taking out my injectors. He said that it was now leaking oil and coolant. I asked him for an update date that he thought my truck would be finished and ready for me to pick it up. James responded with I don t know why you re rushing me, I will put the valve cover back on and you can come get your **** truck right now. I told him I was not trying to rush him but at this point I was just wanting an update as we were days over the original pick up date. He said that he would need my truck for at least an additional week. I asked him what he was going to do about my cylinder head bolt that he had broken and he said that he was going to fix it, but that the bolt breaking was not his fault whatsoever. He Fixed the bolt, put my injectors back in and started the truck. Wednesday (2/20) he called my husband to let him know it was still leaking oil. He said that he was incorrect in the diagnosis of the Valve Cover Gasket failure and that our problem was the Upper Oil Pan Gasket that we had brought the truck to him to fix to begin with. He said that he would need at least an additional week to fix the Upper Oil Pan Gasket problem. At this point, my husband and I agreed to go get the truck and not let James work on anything else. We went to the shop and picked up my truck. James said that since he didn t fix our problem that he wasn t charging us due to the fact that he misdiagnosed it but that our valve caver gasket still held the 12 month 12,000-mile warranty.Wednesday February 27, 2019, we took my truck to Full Force Diesel in Murfreesboro, TN to get the Upper Oil Pan Gasket fixed. While in their shop, they found that the bottom half of the bolt James Dodson s shop had broken was now in my oil pan. Paid $1487.51 and have had no issues at all to date from the Upper Oil Pan Gasket.On April 14, 2019 my truck started to make a knocking noise. We took it back to Full Force Diesel and when they did the diagnosis they found that when repairing the bolt they had broken, James Dodson s shop drilled the bolt crooked which caused the cylinder head to crack and led to my injector backing out of the engine. So as of today April 23, 2019 my repair bill just to fix the things that James Dodson Service Center LLC broke is a little over $3700. This includes two new injectors, two new injector line kits, a new cylinder head, 18 head gasket bolts, one new head gasket, four new glow plugs, one new valve cover gasket, one new manifold gasket, one new turbo pedestal gasket and of course the labor hours charged by Full Force Diesel.

  Alecia Terrazzano
4 years ago
took my 99 F250 powerstroke in his shop to have diagnosis done, around Dec 16, 2019. Upon diagnosis I was told valve cover wiring harness was faulty, and valve cover gaskets needed replaced. He also suggested putting new o-rings on injectors, and new glow plugs. I had a new ipc sensor laying in the valley of the motor. He put it in as well. After doing the valve cover gaskets, I was informed my IDM (injection drive module) was bad. This module is located behind the driver's side front fender well. My total bill was $1272.... I picked up my truck December 31,2019. I was told at that point my truck had a severe oil leak, due to the rear main seal, a repair he stated wouldn't be done at his shop. Truck drove great home. The following Saturday, i decided to take it to the dollar store, approx 2 miles round trip. I checked the fluids, oil was a little low but still in operating range. On my way back, as I turned on my Rd, I noticed a steady stream of oil going out my Rd. I looked behind me to see my truck pouring oil. Brought it home, and parked it. I messaged the man I purchased the truck from, and he asked me to go look on top of the motor on the valley where valve covers are. There was at least 3 inches of oil in it, pouring down the back side of my motor. I was concerned maybe my high pressure oil pump was leaking, so I cleaned all the oil around it. Started the truck came around under the hood, and oil was just pumping out the ipc sensor hole. The ipc wasn't tight, and the o-ring had blew. I looked down to see a bolt missing out of my valve cover. Upon further investigation, there were two bolts missing (one on each side), and one bolt finger tight, and another just dropped in the hole. Only one side of the connecting ends were replaced, and all kits I've looked at on line comes with two new connectors. I contacted James Dodson, he told me they'd make it right, and fix it. I then wanted to investigate the rest of the work I pd for. Looking at my fender well, it had been marked, and cut out. This, he denies doing. The mechanic admitted to forgetting the valve cover bolts, but states that the ipc sensor was tight when it left his shop. There was 7 bolts holding on my fender well, the main bolt that connects it to the frame on my truck had been broken off in the frame. Also states they weren't responsible. My power steering dip stick was just laying on some lines, (thankfully I hadn't lost it) this, he stated was probably where they had to tow it in to shop not running, and pressure blew it off. There was no bolt in my dipstick tube for my oil, it was just flopping. He stated it was this way before he got it. The air tubing that goes across my motor only had one bolt holding it, just found it. After putting the truck back together, I took it down the Rd, approx 10 miles, and would've went further, but forgot to lock my house and get my purse. I was like 3 city blocks from home, the truck surged, went to missing, and I literally coasted in the driveway. I went to the shop to speak with Mr James Dodson, he was highly upset, cause I'd been to AutoZone trying to exchange the idm, and trying to verify that it was a new part ($300 part). So, I was offered$20 to take my truck to car wash to power wash the oil off the motor. (Guess I'm supposed to pay to have a roll back take it to the car wash) I God blessed him, and walked out. I am no mechanic, but I know if a bolt is tightened I'm the block, the only way it will loosen up, is if the threads were stripped. I have had to purchase a new ipc sensor, and ipr valve, as the were standing in oil. Truck still won't run. Took idm back, got different one. Truck still won't run. My truck is in worse condition now, then before I took it to him. I can't tell you how disgusted I am, that I gave almost a months wages to this shop to fix my truck, and now it will probably have dry rotted tires before it goes to another shop.

  Mr. Jingles
a year ago
This is a hometown, very professional, loaded with knowledge, super friendly, over the top honest folks who will always get my business. Highly recommend.

  Shelby Tessar
2 years ago
Always amazing service. Everyone is so honest, friendly, and knowledgeable. We bring all of our cars to James and trust him 100%.

  William Lester
9 months ago
Good experience. I would highly recommend this mechanic if you need repairs in Sparta.

  david dowdy
a year ago
When it comes to vehicle repairs this shop is defintely a diamond in the ruft. Truly a rare find when needing a mechanic's expertise in the auto industry.

  TnHillbilly o
3 years ago
Took my tahoe to them for a leak, they was booked a week ahead. They had me to leave it and they would work me in and with in the hour they called and said my tahoe was ready. Thank yal for the great service

  marie sanson
4 years ago
Very helpful and honest about what needs done. Good prices and disnt have to wait weeks to get truck in. Done same day and always kept us informed about what was going on. No suprise cost.

  Jessica Rittenberry
2 months ago
Wonderful ,fast and great price.

  Raquel Small
3 years ago
Best mechanic! I won't take any of my cars anywhere else. Friendly, honest and quality work.

  Allearz
5 years ago
Honest and very knowledgeable! Have known James for many years, and he is my trusted mechanic! Recommended!

  Richard Barlow
3 years ago
He got me in and fixed my brakes right away. Great business and great service

  Billy Mac
10 months ago
Fair pricing, very knowledgeable and won t rip you off.

  Martha Prater
5 months ago
Very good service and people also.

  w r stasiuk
6 years ago
Did a great job on my Ford diesel. On time, and on budget. Finally... an honest mechanic.

  Jeff Young
3 years ago
Repaired my F350 diesel, very fair priced and nice to deal with.

  Shawn Chausse
a year ago
Great mechanics! Some of the best people I've ever met!!!

  Dennis Reiland
3 years ago
Great family owned business customer satisfaction always comes first. They work with you and try to save you funds where they can

  Ash L
7 months ago
10/10 super friendly and excellent work